Welcome to St John Fisher & St Thomas More Roman Catholic Church

St John Fisher & St Thomas More Catholic Church is situated between the villages of Burley in Wharfedale and Menston, our address is Bradford Road, Burley-in-Wharfedale, LS29 7PX.

Our friendly parish would very much like to welcome you to our church throughout the year.

You can find details of our parish life, how you can get involved and who to contact for further information, in our welcome pack that can be found here. Hard copies of the welcome pack are available in the church foyer. If you think you would like to help in any role, please feel free to ask Fr Michael to pass your details to the organiser of your chosen ministries.

Please take a look through our website, we hope it will provide you with a brief insight into our church, its history and what’s going on. But if it doesn’t answer all your questions, please don’t hesitate to call us on: 01943 863179

Parish Family EventsIlkley half marathonOn Sunday 14 July our Burley Téréli Friendship Trust team of six parishioners, together with five members of other Burley churches, and family and friends, will be running in the inaugural Ilkley half marathon.We are raising money for much needed palliative care for cancer – in Bamako, Mali, West Africa. If you would like to sponsor us please sign the form at the back of church.You can donate online at: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-display/showROFundraiserPage?userUrl=TeamBTFT&pageUrl=2Once again many thanks for your support – it will help us in the run and everything raised will go to this great charity.

A huge thank you goes to Parish Family of SS John Fisher and Thomas More Parish, Burley-in-Wharfedale; who had the novel idea of filling used handbags with toiletries, ladies products and men’s personal hygiene and shaving necessities for those in need.

Six bags have been given to Sheila Pickles from St Monica’s Housing to give to the destitute asylum seeking women in the House in Beeston, four bags have been retained for the new house in Harehills for the destitute asylum seeking women who will be housed there. Carol Hill (Director of Catholic Care) made the final delivery of the remaining bags to St George’s Crypt to support homeless men and women.

Martin Patterson (Development Director at St George’s Crypt) said people often forget about specific ladies toiletries and the bags were very welcome. He thanked those who had donated.

DAY OF REFLECTION: Caring for the Earth – Our Common Home:The Justice & Peace Commission held its Day of Reflection on 30 March at our church. It was a day of prayer and personal reflection about our place in God’s creation and our responsibilities towards looking after our common home. We discussed some main themes in Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato si. We heard about– what the parish of Our Lady of Kirkstall has achieved in their Live Simply actions– a person from an indigenous community talking about opposition to mining– Greta Thunberg’s address to COP24 in Katowice about political actionWe finished with discussions about personal and parish actions that we can do, committing these to paper in the shape of a leaf for our future use.

Sacrament of Confirmation 2019

On 28th February 2019 26 year 6 & year 7 students received the Sacrament of Confirmation from Canon Michael. Our Catechists Rachel and Liz thoroughly enjoyed the preparation sessions. It was wonderful to hear Saint John Paul being chosen as her Confirmation name by one of the students. Laughter was the keynote of each session as it was at the gathering in the parish hall after the celebration of the sacrament. Both church and hall were filled to overflowing as the parish family gathered with Father Michael to share a party supper!

Sacrament of Reconciliation 2019

Eleven younger members of the Parish Family made their First Confession on Saturday 23rd March. Canon Michael thought them the best group ever! The children told their Catechist James, helped by Gabby and other parents, they had had a lot of fun in their preparation sessions. After receiving the Sacrament the celebrations continued in the Parish Hall with a party for children and families – as the photos show Father got lots of help when cutting the scrumptious cakes!

Bishop of Leeds’ annual appeal for Catholic CareBishop Marcus has asked us to support our diocesan charity Catholic Care. You can read Bishop Marcus’ letter here.

Bishop of Leeds’ letter to the clergy and faithful of the diocese

Bishop Marcus has responded in his capacity as Bishop of Leeds to the publication on 20th August 2018 of the Holy Father’s Letter to the People of God on the need for ‘…combatting all forms of the abuse of power, sexual abuse and the abuse of conscience’. You can read Pope Francis’ letter here and Bishop Marcus’ letter here. Mass readings Readings for daily Mass and prayers can be found at Universalis

Our parish prayerGod our loving Father, You made us your children in baptism. Pour out on us the gifts of your Holy Spirit. Help us as a parish to know the paths we must follow so as to build up your kingdom. Teach us to grow in faith, to encourage one another with words of hope, and to care for your family with love. Let us bear witness to the Good News, and be faithful followers of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen

Catholic Care Catholic Care is one of the charities we support. A link to a short video describing its work can be found here and further information is given on our charities webpage.

News

Traidcraft

Please see news here of Traidcraft’s trading position from Robin Roth (CE0), with hopeful news of plans to slim down and keep trading in 2019.

Diocesan Justice & Peace Commission newsletter

In April’s newsletter read about:
-A write up of our Day of Reflection about Climate Change
-the visit of the new CAFOD Director, Christine Allen, to meet Bishop Marcus, CAFOD volunteers and members of the J&P Commission
– Memories of campaigns and visiting speakers from years past were brought to mind in our ‘Looking Back’ Lent lunch joint event with CAFOD in the Leeds Diocese
-A new film resource about Israel/Palestine that can be borrowed from the J&P office
–Rollout of our Family Poverty workshops starts
plus our usual events summary and reflection.

Kim’s poem for corporal David O’Connor

Kim wrote this poem just after David’s funeral. He was Kim’s brother’s eldest son. He was a corporal in the Royal Marines. He was killed while on active service in Afghanistan on 24 October 2012. He was 27 years old.

CAFOD – El Salvador and Columbia

Our parish has supported CAFOD’s work with the Puentecitos community in El Salvador for the last 3 years. We raised £491 from book sales in the church foyer and £2,511 from our parish team running the 2015 Great North Run. Read here about the amazing projects that have been completed, helping to improve people’s income and food production in this very poor region of the country. From January 2019 our parish has been supporting people in Magdalena Medio, Columbia through CAFOD’s HandsOn programme.